1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a seat belt for securing the driver or passenger in a vehicle. More particularly the invention relates to a device for adjusting the support position of the seat belt by adjusting the position of a suitable member of a seat belt system such as anchor, through-anchor or retractor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a conventional seat belt system, the shoulder anchor is usually mounted on the center pillar in a vehicle and the position of the shoulder anchor is fixed. Because of the shoulder anchor being fixed, the state of the seat belt folded back by the anchor where the anchor is a through-anchor can not be always suitable to all of the users who are different in physical constitution. Some wearers feel uncomfortable. Moreover, if the seat belt does not well fit the wearer, the safety by the seat belt can not be assured to the wearer.
In order to overcome the above-mentioned drawback of the conventional seat belt system, it has already been proposed to make a suitable member of the seat belt system, such as a shoulder anchor, movable and adjustable in position. The use of such an adjustable shoulder anchor allows the user to wear the seat belt more comfortably and safely because he can adjust the state of the seat belt to the structure of his body at his will.
With the use of such an adjustable shoulder anchor in a seat belt system, various means for adjusting the set position of the anchor also have been proposed in these years. In all of the known devices hitherto proposed for this purpose there is used an operation member by which the anchor is brought into a movable state from a fixed state. The operation member is so designed as to be actuated by only one-step operational motion. The action of the user needed to operate the member is only to rotate or pull it in one step. Therefore, the operation member is very easily operable. However, on the other hand, there is a large possibility that the operation member may be operated unintentionally and accidentally. For example, if any part of the wearer's body or any object touches the operation member accidentally, then the latter may be actuated to render the anchor movable, which means a danger to the wearer of the seat belt. In this case, the anchor unexpectedly begins to move and the belt gets in the state unable to secure the wearer properly. There may occur such accident that the wearer's body is struck against the front panel of the car.